[split] f85r2

[Koen G]

Speculating that swallowtail merlons may have some use in narrowing down author locations led to valuable research being done in that area, for example.

I wouldn't call that speculation. It was a research question: where do we find swallowtail merlons before 1450? It's a question that can be answered. That answer can then be used in speculation, of course. But the map of swallowtail merlons itself offers us something solid that speculation cannot offer. It's concrete, evidence based. That doesn't mean it's all set in stone. Someone might revisit the map and discover a mistake we made. Or someone could discover a group of outliers, reshaping everything. But the consensus of the map exists and can be interacted with. It can be used in support of one's research, added to, revised...